Instead of the original Jan. 2, 2016, date at UFC 95 for the Ronda Rousey-Holly Holm, UFC President Dana White moved the anticipated bout earlier to Nov. 14, 2015, at UFC 193.
The Washington Post reports that White made the changes to break attendance report. It actually will be held Nov. 15 at the Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, Australia, but because of the time difference, pay-per-view subscribers in the U.S. will watch the fight, when Rousey would defend her UFC Women's Bantamweight belt, on Nov. 14.
Etihad Stadium could accommodate 60,000 spectators. The highest attendance in a UFC fight was 55,724 at UFC 129 on April 2011 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Canada.
UFC is banking on the popularity of Rousey who beat Bethe Correia in Brazil in just 34 seconds. White predicted on Friday that Rousey would break UFC's records. He explains, "Obviously Ronda Rousey was huge for us down in Brazil, she was well received there, it was just a phenomenal event. It did very well on pay-per-view here in the United States. She's obviously a huge superstar for us and Australia's an important market for us so we're going to bring her out there."
Rousey's popularity is further fueled by her ongoing word war with unbeaten American boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. over who earns more and who would win in a fight with no-rules and the release of the trailer for a porn parody on Ronda.
Another reason for the change in the schedule was the thumb injury of Robbie Lawler who was set to defend his welterweight title against Carlos Condit on Nov. 14, reports The Roar.
The undercard fight on Nov. 14 is between Australian heavyweight Mark Hunt against Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva.